


One big family

by ximeria



Category: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men (Movies), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, M/M, Writing Exercise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-06 19:28:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5427908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ximeria/pseuds/ximeria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a house in New York (no, only Charles calls it a house, and his perception of such is a little warped, so let's try that again)...</p>
<p>... There's a building in New York, owned by XavierMedCorp that caters to mutant tenants, their families and a handful of humans. You need to know someone who knows someone who knows someone to get an apartment there. Or maybe just be very lucky. Or have a mutant son who has the tenacity of a pit bull. Anyway, Edie Lehnsherr has moved in and she is slowly getting to know the other tenants, the superintendent and the owner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In which Edie makes a new acquaintance

**Author's Note:**

> While this is listed as Erik/Charles, this story will be focused mostly on Edie Lehnsherr, because I felt like it. It will eventually be Erik/Charles, since this is me, and that's my preferred OTP ;).
> 
> It's mostly a stress relief project while trying to edit a much longer story. I have a handful of oddball scenes in my head that I want to get down on 'paper' so the future holds familiar characters and more shenanigans. 
> 
> Consider at least the first few parts my xmas present to the fandom (or at least the part of the fandom that enjoys an occasional AU).
> 
> I apologize for any errors I may not have caught. Lately my brain seems to have slowed to a crawl.

Edie closed the door behind the young superintendent who had just fixed the drain in her kitchen. She quite liked the girl, and had initially wondered why such a young girl was working as the superintendent of a 20 storey apartment building in New York. Having met her a few times by now, since Edie herself had moved in, she had quickly learned that not only did the girl have a knack for problem solving, but she also genuinely enjoyed her job. And the interaction with people, Edie suspected.

She had initially been a little worried about being one of only a handful of humans living in the building, with the rest of the people being mutants. Not that she had a problem with them, but Edie knew how hard her fellow non-gifted humans made things for mutants. She just had to listen to her son when he called every few days. Mostly, she suspected, to vent about humans who feared the unknown, or more often, to complain about his boss.

Edie sighed as she took her cup of tea and sat down on her couch. She had suggested to Erik that he look for a new job, but he had seemed almost stressed by the suggestion, and she worried what the reason for this might be. Erik would tell her, eventually. He always did. All she had to do was out-stubborn him. It had taken a few years before he had admitted to her that he might not be as straight as she thought. She had refrained from telling him that she had suspected for years.

It was a wonder, with Erik's work days, that he had had the time to find this apartment for her, insisting that it should be a mutant friendly environment, but also safe for her. She had no complaints once she had met the people who lived on her floor. She had a lovely place on the 10th floor and her neighbours were fairly quiet. The lower floors were offices and smaller businesses, which meant those parts were fairly deserted during the evenings.

Quite frankly, Edie was in love with the place and the choice of moving here was one of the things she would agree with Erik had been a very good idea. Now if she could get her son to move and find another job, she would have a lot fewer worries in her life.

\---

With a sigh, Edie set her phone down looked for her purse. She still had a little shopping to do and Erik's phone call had brought her otherwise good mood down a notch or two.

She had to be glad that while Erik had always fought with a certain anger inside, one that seemed to wax and wane but never really go away, at least he wouldn't end up killing anyone. Or she would have to hope so. It did seem as if his hatred for his boss was reaching new heights and it had sounded as if he was seriously considering leaving his job and finally looking for something new.

Locking her front door behind her, she righted her coat and turned to walk down the hallway, finally finding her good mood again when she saw Raven coming towards her, halfway turned to speak to a man in a wheelchair, who was following behind her.

"Mrs. Lehnsherr," Raven said, beaming at her when she caught sight of her. "Going out so late?"

"I need milk, I'm afraid," Edie replied, "while my son guzzles coffee straight, I take my tea with milk or not at all."

"Well, if you have a moment," Raven said, standing to the side to gesture at the young man she had been speaking with. "This is my brother, Charles," she said as way of introduction.

"How lovely," Edie said, taking the hand he held out to her. "Are you visiting your sister?"

Charles broke into a boyish grin that would have charmed Edie had she been much younger. As it were, she could see it reach his eyes and light them up and that alone made her like him right from the get go.

"I'm actually moving in," he told her. "I've had an apartment here for years that I haven't used much because I've been in Oxford working on my phd." He lifted his head to look up at Raven and his smile softened. "I have business in New York now and decided it was time to come home."

Raven made a face at him and punched his shoulder lightly, but Edie could tell she was happy.

"Well, Mr. Darkholme, I'm glad to make your acquaintance," she said, standing aside to let them pass.

"Oh, please, call me Charles," he said, "Darkholme is Raven's choice of last name, while she might not be my relation by blood, she is my sister in all else."

"Family of choice," Raven said, a hint of stubbornness in her voice as she held her fist out to bump it against Charles'.

"Family of choice," Charles echoed. "I do hope you like living here, Mrs. Lehnsherr," he said as he rolled past.

"Very much, Charles and it's Edie if you will not give me your last name," she replied, still charmed but a little mystified by this young man.

"Oh, my manners," Charles said, not looking contrite at all. "My last name is Xavier, Edie, but as I said, please, call me Charles. And if there's anything you need help with, please let Raven know. We try to make this house as much of a home for everyone as possible."

"And that means we have to go," Raven said, pointing down the hallway. "Kitty's mom said Kitty almost phased through the floor this morning."

"Ah yes," Charles said with a wink to Edie. "That would be the other kind of help one can get in this house."  
Edie watched the odd pair make their way down to number 1019 and felt a little off kilter. She knew that name, had seen it on the lease papers, on every memo sent out. The house was owned by XavierMedCorp, afterall.

It would have been more intimidating a thought, that she had just held a perfectly normal conversation with the man who probably owned the entire building, if not for his charms and the fact that his sister was once again punching his shoulder for something he had said to her.

How interesting, Edie thought to herself, making her way towards the lift. She would have to remember to mention this to Erik the next time they spoke. Apparently Raven was not only the superintendent, but also the adopted sister of the owner, who was not only moving in, but also offering to help the young girl in number 1019 with her gift.

Edie was happy that she had moved into the building. It was proving more and more interesting every day.


	2. - in which Edie watches her cunning plan take shape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edie continues to find new friends in the building, and Erik finally finds the time to visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still just puttering about with this as an exercise. I'll probably have another chapter before I head off for my Christmas vacation on Monday and that will be it for this round - though I'll definitely revisit the setting at some later date and make it part of a series. I just can't make any promises while off gallivanting around Scotland.

Edie had thought, for the first few days after Charles moved into the building, that nothing much would change. What she had not expected, though, was more or less being adopted as something of a favorite aunt of Raven's and Charles'. And every other mutant child or youth of the building, it sometimes seemed.

She hadn't avoided the other tenants, but she had not gone looking for company either. But after Charles moved in, she found herself having tea and coffee with him and Raven more often, and soon, Kitty joined them on occasion, followed by young Bobby from a few floors up. Edie might not have thought much about it, and had most certainly not mentioned it to Erik when they spoke on the phone, but she had missed being part of a community like this.

It was a lively sort, these people, and while she did enjoy it, she loved spending one or two afternoons a week with Charles, simply relaxing and talking about everything under the sky. It took a few weeks before she realized that he made Erik's absence a little easier to handle. For a moment or two she had felt a little guilty about it, but then realized that Erik would call her silly for it - he was the one who always worried about her.

In many ways, this made her focus on his well-being as well. She shared with Charles how much she did miss her son, how sad she was that he seemed to be working almost constantly without much of a life.

Charles had listened to her worries and shared his own about Raven while he had been in Europe. In the end, it may not have solved the problem of Erik's work, but it had helped Edie to unload on someone as emphatic as Charles.

Edie continued enjoying her new found company on a regular basis, and one afternoon as she came home from a walk, she had only just put her coat away when she heard an almighty racket in the hallway.

Going to investigate, she did pause for a moment, wondering if she might step into one of the poor children having lost control and perhaps the hallway wouldn't be the safest place.

 _"It's safe,"_ Charles' mental voice assured her.

It wasn't lost on her that there was a certain exasperation to it.

Entering the hallway, she could not see anything amiss at first, then realized the door to the stairwell was propped open by Charles having parked his chair to keep it from falling shut.

"We need the stairwell as means of escape if the elevators don't work," Charles said tiredly to someone in the stairwell.

"It wouldn't take up the shaft, Charles," someone replied enthusiastically. "If we slim it up, it would fit into the center of the stairwell."

"You want a reactor core stretched up from the basement to the penthouse via the stairwell?" Charles asked incredulously.

"I'd put the reactor in the basement, dumb-ass," came the reply. "The stairwell would hold the distribution system."

Charles turned his head to greet Edie, rolling his eyes. "I asked you for good ideas on self sustainable energy for the building, Tony. Not how to endanger my tenants the most."

"You do know that I run the tower on an arc reactor, right?" the man in the stairwell replied.

"You also popped one into your chest to stay alive - it doesn't mean it's a safe option," Charles said with a sigh. "And come back into the hallway, doofus, I want you to say hi to Edie."

"Maker of the brilliant cookies you keep talking about?" the voice held so much hope that Edie had to cover her mouth to keep herself from laughing out loud.

"I fear I have none left as the children were here earlier," she replied dryly, wondering who Charles was talking to. "But if you are still here in an hour or so, I can make a new batch."

"So tempting," said the man emerging from the stairwell, running a hand through his already disheveled hair. "But Pepper's going to kill me if I don't get back soon." He held out his hand to Edie. "However, if you are willing to bake a batch, I'm back on Saturday to talk shop with Charles again. Tony Stark," he added, barely taking a breath.

Even if Edie hadn't known her gossip rags, she would have known who he was. If nothing else, Erik mentioned him often enough with equal parts respect and wonder whenever Stark Enterprises invented something new. She wondered for a moment if she might lay some groundwork there - using cookies. She'd even make that the peanut butter ones.

"I think I could be convinced," Edie said with a laugh. "Edie Lehnsherr," she added.

"Charmed," Tony said, bowing down to press his lips to her hand.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Tony," Charles moaned from where he had rolled back to let the door fall shut.

"You're just jealous that I am more charming than you are," Tony said childishly.

"I'm calling Pepper," Charles warned. "Or even better, I'm calling Steve."

Tony looked worried for a moment. "You wouldn't."

Charles didn't reply, simply raised an eyebrow at him.

Groaning, Tony let go of Edie's hand and waved a hand at them. "That's plain dirty," he complained. "Friday, Charles, and I'll have something scientifically sound to suggest." He turned to Edie. "Cookies?"

"Will be baked and ready for tea and coffee," she promised, still trying not to laugh. Nowhere had she expected such familiarity from a man like Tony Stark. Then again, one shouldn't trust the media on a good day.

"Sounds devine," Tony said, interrupted as his phone went off. He gave the screen a tired look. "Pepper. I better take this one. I'll see the two of you on Saturday."

Edie stood in the hallway next to Charles as they watched Tony power walking to the lift before tapping the button several times as if it would make it arrive faster. All the while he was talking fast and low into the phone.

\---

Edie was happily bustling around her kitchen on a Friday afternoon, drying the last of dishes. Not only was she having her friends over for dinner, but Erik had called earlier in the week, letting her know that he would be arriving early Saturday morning.

She wasn't sure if it was possible to be more happy than she was that very moment. She hoped she could introduce him to Tony at some point, as she had all but hinted that her intelligent son, the engineer, was trapped in a horrible job. She felt no guilt about it whatsoever. 

A knock at the door drew her attention and when she opened it, she nearly dropped the dish towel she was still holding in her hand.

"Erik!" Edie found herself engulfed in a warm hug, Erik dropping his luggage right in the middle of the entrance to hold onto her, his normally pristine suit a little crinkled from the trip.

"Hallo, Mutter," he muttered into her hair, holding on a tad bit too tight, but she could not bring herself to ask him to lessen his grip.

"How is my favorite son?" she asked, wiping at her eyes as she finally stepped back.

"As I am your only son," Erik started glibly, then shook his head. "I'm good, mother. All the better for being here - I hope you don't mind I'm early."

"Not at all!" Edie told him, gesturing him in, watching the luggage lift itself off the ground and bop along behind him. "Put the luggage in the guest room, put on something more comfortable and join me in the kitchen."

"Yes, mother," Erik said, a warmth in his voice that Edie felt had been missing the last few times she had been on the phone with him.

Edie went back to pull out a sheet of cookies from the oven and replacing it with a new one. She was not above bribing her guests with cookies. So far it had worked particularly well with Tony and Charles.

Erik joined her in the kitchen, now wearing the usual combination of a worn t-shirt and a pair of old worn jeans. He reached for one of the cookies and gave her a hurt look when she slapped his fingers with the spatula she had been using to lift them from the baking tray onto a cooling rack.

"They are for later," she told him sternly. "And I'm glad you're here a day early, because you get to have dinner with not only me, but also a few friends of mine."

Erik shot her a questioning look. "You know I've told you about Charles and Raven," she reminded him. "And Tony."

Erik's eyes widened, but before he could ask, there was a frantic knock at the door. When Edie opened it, Raven slipped inside, shooting Erik a curious look, but then focusing entirely on Edie.

"Edie, I need a voice of reason," she all but panted, obviously having run fast to get there.

"Where's Charles?" Edie asked curiously. She knew that he had gone down to the basement along with Tony and Raven earlier in the day to work on the new power setup. Tony might be a genius, but if left to his own devices, he might as well decide that it needed to be able to blast the whole house to the moon, if he felt like it.

"He had to go help Alex's kid brother," Raven explained and made a face. "He manifested at school and the gym took the brunt of it."

Edie winced. "Poor boy."

Raven turned her attention from Edie to Erik. "You're Erik, right?" she asked.

"Who wants to know?" Erik asked.

Edie didn't even try to stop herself, just slapped the back of his head. Erik turned to give her a surprised look. "Manners," she told him.

"I might have more use for you than a voice of reason, now that I think about it. You're an engineer as well," she muttered to herself, "hopefully less insane. I'm Raven, the superintendent of this fine building. And you and I need to get down into the basement and keep Tony from blowing us up," she told him brightly.

Erik shot Edie a helpless look. Not that she was going to come to his rescue. This played far too well into her 'plan' of getting him into contact with Tony.

"Don't just stand around, dear. Go help. Dinner will be ready at six, Raven," Edie continued. "Could you force Tony into the shower before that? I know what he's like when he gets caught up in his tinkering."

Raven shot to attention, giving Edie a sloppy salute and a saucy grin. "Aye, aye, Edie."

Edie smiled widely and gestured for Erik to follow Raven and was rewarded with yet another incredulous look from her son before he did as she had told him.

Dinner was nearly ready when Charles returned and knocked on her door and Edie shooed him inside, instantly worried about the tired look to his face and the stiff set of his shoulders.

"It's alright, Edie," Charles assured her. "I just had to spend a few hours with a few people who had no idea how to shield and who had some fairly despicable thoughts about mutants."

Edie clucked and put the kettle on for him, and the thankful burst of mental touch this got her, only made her want to wrap the boy up in a warm blanket and keep him safe from the world.

Charles laughed a little behind her, at the table. "I am an adult, Edie, you can't save me from the world."

"I am a mother, Charles," she warned him, "which means I'll never stop trying."

Charles didn't answer, but there was a soft contentedness coming off him now that he was sitting still and tea was about to happen.

They had barely started in on the tea and Edie telling him that Erik had arrived early, when she heard the front door open, voices loudly heralding the arrival of the rest of the group.

"Seriously, Shaw is like number three on my list of least favorite people to deal with," Tony said.

"How is he only number three?" Erik asked, obviously not agreeing.

"Obadiah Stane is at the top, for obvious reasons," Tony replied and Edie wondered if he was touching the rim of his arc reactor. She had only heard him mention Stane a few times, and every time he'd touched the contraption. His extra heart, as Charles had called it. Which had prompted a round of timelord jokes as well, easing the tension.

"Justin Hammer is number two," Tony continued as they were kicking off their shoes in the hallway, before making their way towards the kitchen where they knew they would find Edie.

Erik scoffed as they entered the kitchen. "Hammer's an idiot, but he's not as vicious as Shaw." He stopped and stared at Charles for a moment, Raven walking around him, followed by Tony. Edie was happy to see that Erik was apparently getting on with Tony and she hoped Tony could make him see that he had other options. They had obviously already been discussing Erik's horrible boss.

Edie watched fondly as Raven leaned in and kissed Charles on the cheek before sitting down. As naturally as always, Tony did exactly the same, earning him a roll of the eyes from Charles.

"Close your mouth dear, and sit down," Edie told Erik. "Come say hello to one of my good friends." She waited until he shuffled over to the table, his whole focus on Charles. "Erik, this is Charles, Charles this is Erik, my son."

Erik took the hand Charles offered him in greeting, holding on to it for a little longer than necessary.

Hook, line and sinker, Edie thought self satisfied to herself.


	3. - in which Edie's suspicions are confirmed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edie is happy that everyone is apparently applying pressure to Erik to get him to quit his job out West and come to New York.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for this round. I'm off on vacation tomorrow morning and I figured I'd give you all an end of sorts. I've enjoyed this little stint and I'll probably return to this 'verse because I enjoy writing Edie far too much not to.

Edie could not be happier.

Well, strictly speaking, of course she could. If her stupid boy of a son would pack in his pride and take Tony's offer and then move to New York and stop denying that he was in any way romantically interested in Charles.

The latter was infuriating in its own.

The former she was fairly sure was getting closer every day. Now that Tony had aired his offer less than three weeks ago, Edie spoke to Erik more often than she had in years. He would call her and talk of nothing specific, but it would always get around to how horrible his boss was and how he felt there was no challenge in his work.

Edie had wondered if she should keep pushing the issue, but she soon realized that this might be why Erik was calling as often as he was. He did want to be convinced. She had suggested as much to Charles and he had smiled softly, agreeing with her. She had hoped, at that point, that Charles might speak with him as well, but Charles had shaken his head and told her that if anyone pushed Erik too much he would only dig his heels in even more. Although he had admitted that she, as Erik's mother, was possibly the exception to that.

It all came to a head one lovely Saturday afternoon. Erik was on one of his rare visits, and he had gone upstairs to speak with Charles a couple of hours earlier. Edie wasn't worried at all, which she shared with a smile with Raven, who was keeping her company, going over some of the ideas that Tony had suggested for the building the last time he had come by. It was, as always, down to Charles and Raven what they thought were good ideas and what were ludicrous ideas. However, Raven liked sharing the more insane ones with Edie, just for a laugh. And Edie in turn found quite a few of them interesting, if a bit over the top for a building such as theirs.

Edie and Raven shared a look when the front door to Edie's apartment was opened with more force than necessary and Erik all but stomped through the hallway and into the kitchen.

"Your brother is a naive idealist," Erik told Raven, pacing the kitchen.

Edie and Raven shared another look and Raven shrugged. "That he is, as an academic he leans on theories a lot, but make no mistake, Erik. He is very much a realist as well."

"I can not seem to have a decent debate with him and ever make him see my side of it," Erik spat.

Edie took in his appearance and bit her lower lip for a moment, wondering if she should address it. Then decided that yes, of course she should. "Yes, we can tell you have had rather ...heated debate."

Raven shot her a quick look, then Erik, then back at Edie, her eye wide as saucers.

Erik stopped his pacing and stared at her.

Edie tried not to laugh, as she gestured at his shirt. "Your shirt is buttoned askew and you have-" she trailed off, gesturing to his neck where a bruise she was fairly sure fit Charles' mouth was rather visible.

Erik put his hand over the mark as quickly as he could, looking absolutely mortified. Without another word, he stomped off to the guest room.

"I had my suspicions," Raven admitted, staring after him. "But I wasn't sure and Charles, for all that he loves gossip, can keep a secret longer than anyone else I know."

"It's not until now that I've been absolutely sure either," Edie said with a sigh. "Erik is a private man, he never was very good at sharing his emotions with anyone, and from what I know, he has not had a long term relationship since he moved out west to work for Shaw."

"Yeah, he's always struck me as emotionally constipated," Raven agreed, looking upwards. "And for all that he's a telepath and normally very good with people, Charles doesn't exactly have a great track record with long term relationships."

Edie worried for a moment about her son and what she might have gotten him into by introducing him to Charles. "Charles does not strike me as someone who would toy with someone's heart," she said carefully.

"Oh no," Raven said, shaking her head, her mouth turning down at the corners. "Charles used to fall for a lot of the wrong people, the ones who were not long term material." She bit her lower lip. "Maybe I should go check on him."

"You do that, and I'll work on Erik a little more," Edie agreed.

"If nothing else, he and my brother getting together would definitely tie him to this place," Raven mused. "Tony would be so happy to poach him from Shaw."

Edie huffed out a small laugh. "He would indeed and it would get Erik away from Shaw before he might possibly kill him out of boredom or anger - whichever he fails to control first."

Raven grinned and got to her feet, leaning down to kiss Edie on the cheek before she ran off in search of her brother.

Edie looked up when Erik stepped back into the kitchen, having exchanged his button-down with a turtleneck, covering the bruise on his neck.

"Hiding isn't going to make it go away," Edie told him, getting to her feet to put the kettle on.

Erik sat down by the kitchen table, slumping in his seat. "He's just so infuriating," he said as a way of explaining his anger with Charles.

Edie set her tea to steep and sat down across from Erik, taking his hand and waiting for him to look her in the eye. "And you are not?"

Erik opened his mouth to argue, then deflated. He turned his hand to grasp hers. "I'm sure I am, but it's like he doesn't understand all the things mutants go through out there."

Edie paused for a moment, wondering how much she was supposed to interfere. She and Raven were some of the few people who Charles ever let see his tiredness after he had dealt with one case of manifestation gone bad or a mutant child having gotten into trouble because they had used their powers at school. By now the social workers in New York would contact Charles whenever there was such a case and while Charles would never complain or say no, Edie could tell it wore at him.

"As a telepath, dear," she began slowly, "I think perhaps he understands more than most. Sees more than most, _experiences_ more than most."

"Then how can he be so optimistic?" Erik asked, sounding almost desperate. "How can he be so naive to think the world can change for the better simply because he wants it to?"

"I can't tell you every reason Charles has for what he does or says or thinks," Edie told him sternly. "You will have to have that conversation with Charles. But I think with all the bad things he sees, he craves the good things even more - to act as a balance. I don't think I want to see what would happen if he lost that craving, that ability to look for the best in people."

Erik was quiet for a moment, still holding onto her hand. Finally he made a face and hung his head and Edie knew he had reached his own conclusions.

"I've been a little rash again, haven't' I?" Erik asked with a huff.

"You are prone to doing so," Edie agreed. "You always did feel passionately about other people and where you may occasionally lack Charles' way with words, your passion is not all that different from his."

Erik let go her her hand, stood from the table and walked to her side. Leaning down, he kissed her cheek. "As always, you are the voice of reason."

Edie allowed herself a small smile. "I have to be, I'm your mother."

Erik muttered something about meddling Jewish mothers to which Edie merely hummed her agreement. It could not possibly have come as a surprise to him, now could it?

"Now go," she told him sternly. "Charles is a good man, and your father and I never went to bed angry with each other."

Erik shot her a wary look. "Sometimes you scare me, Mutter," he said with sigh. "I'm going, I'm going," he added hastily when she made a shooing motion at him.

Edie took her cup of tea and sat back down at the table, feeling confident in her own meddling and Charles' ability to handle himself _and_ Erik.


End file.
